Religious Studies

The anniversary volume »SAPERE Syntheses« takes stock of twenty-five years of editorial and commentary work. Distinguished representatives of various disciplines engage in a fascinating dialogue of research, grounded in ancient voices, and discuss the topics of »truth,« »life,« »the human being,« and »the world.«

Serhii Smahlo investigates Jesus' table fellowship with outcasts in light of Jewish eschatological expectations. He explores how Jesus' inclusion of »unexpected participants« embodied the concept of reversal - »the last will be first and the first will be last« - and how this enactment sparked conflict and ultimately led to Jesus' rejection.

The problem of natural theology has become more acute in late modernity. With impulses from the philosophy of religion, problem-historical analyses and contemporary systematic-theological reflections, the contributors to this volume undertake a reassessment of the problem field of natural theology.

Although scriptural discourses in late antiquity are eminently characterized by forms of wisdom thinking, wisdom is not yet an established category in Qur'anic and Islamic studies. The contributors to this volume explore traces of wisdom thinking, teaching, and interpretation in an interreligious perspective from the Hebrew Bible to the gospels and Hellenistic and late antique literature, and ask for its continuing presence in the context of Islam.